80 ALAEM AT KURRACHEE. 



down, but in doing so laid his side well open to 

 a shot from my rifle, which took effect just be- 

 hind and underneath the shoulder, where it is 

 unprotected by the mail which covers his body 

 elsewhere. The ball passed through a vital part, 

 and the monster at once turned belly upwards, 

 being, the villagers declared, the largest alligator 

 that had ever been killed there. A second ball 

 then finished the sufferings of the tiger." 



The Chief Commissioner and his staff were 

 unfortunately absent on duty in Upper Sindh 

 on our arrival at Kurrachee, but his subordinates, 

 both civil and military, showed every civility 

 and attention to the Meer, and indeed went out 

 of their way to accommodate His Highness, by 

 affording a passage for his suite in the river 

 steamers, at a time when those vessels were 

 much required for the conveyance of troops and 

 stores. On the day of our landing very sinister 

 accounts were current, and considerable alarm 

 was felt at a rumour that ten thousand insurgents 

 were advancing on Hyderabad, about a hundred 

 miles distant, where we had only 400 European 

 troops. A wing of H. M.'s 7th Fusileers was 

 accordingly pushed on, and a troop of Horse 



